Beginning in late 2004, the William R. Wiley Environmental
Molecular Sciences Laboratory (EMSL), a national scientific user facility
located at the Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL) in Richland,
Washington, initiated two scientific Grand Challenges. Both the Biogeochemistry
Grand Challenge and the Membrane Biology Grand Challenge are complex, large-scale
scientific and engineering problems with broad scientific and environmental
or economic impacts whose solution can be advanced by applying a wide variety
of scientific techniques and resources. Both of the EMSL Grand Challenges
are multi-institutional (including universities, other laboratories, and
industry) projects that use multiple facilities within the EMSL.
The Biogeochemistry Grand Challenge (BGC) could provide key information
on how to use microorganisms to address the enormous challenges associated
with subsurface contamination at DOE sites. The BGC is led by PNNL scientists
Dr. John Zachara and Dr. Jim Fredrickson, and includes other PNNL scientists
as well as scientific teams from more than eight other institutions. The
BGC is focused on understanding how organisms exchange energy and electrons
with mineral matter in soils, sediments, and fluids, and other subsurface
materials. This exchange occurs across a mineral-microbe interface that
is a tiny, but chemically active, domain, whose molecular workings have
perplexed scientists for decades.
The Membrane Biology Grand Challenge could provide a systems-level understanding
of how environmental conditions influence key carbon-fixation processes
at the gene/protein/organism level, and provide key information on approaches
for sequestering carbon, producing hydrogen, and harvesting solar energy.
Dr. Himadri Pakrasi from Washington University in St. Louis is leading
a team of scientists from several other academic institutions as well as
PNNL. The Membrane Biology Grand Challenge will use a systems approach
to understand the network of genes and proteins that govern the structure
and function of membranes and their components responsible for photosynthesis
and nitrogen fixation in cyanobacteria (blue-green algae). A systems approach
integrates all temporal information into a predictive, dynamic model to
understand the function of a cell and the cellular membranes.
Further information about the two EMSL Grand Challenges is available at:
http://www.emsl.pnl.gov/proj/grand_challenges.shtml
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3/1/05